ENGLISH FOOTBALL

A HISTORY OF 'PROFESSIONAL' FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND

The oldest (but far from wisest) League in the world was founded in 1888, and initially consisted of 12 clubs in the midlands and north of England. The FA Cup, which initially embraced both Scottish and southern 'non-league' clubs, had already been going since 1872. The new set-up was not called the English League as initially it hoped it too would include Scottish clubs, but these later (1890) formed their own league instead. A second division was added by absorbing the rival Football Alliance in 1892, and by 1899 it had 36 member clubs. Initially the bottom four clubs had to apply for re-election, but this was reduced to three (1895/6), then two (1898/9), before reverting to four (two each from the regional Division 3's) in 1920/1. Full members (those in the top two divisions) had one vote for each available place, whilst Associate members (the remaining divisions) shared a small number of votes between them. Between 1893 and 1898 'test matches' (an early form of play-offs) were used to decide promotion issues between the two divisions. The League stopped between 1915 and 1919 for the First World War, but resumed in the latter year with 40 clubs.

The League was still largely northern- and midlands-based, so in 1920 virtually the entire First Division of the rival Southern League was absorbed as the FL's Third Division. The following year a further batch of clubs from the midlands and north were added to make two regional Division 3's, North and South. Stopping again for the Second World War (1940-46), it saw deregionalization and the creation of Division 4 in 1958, expansion by four clubs to 92 in 1959 and the start of the League Cup in 1960. The complicated system of goal average (goals for divided by goals against) was replaced by the much simpler goal difference in 1975. In 1986 play-offs were (re-)introduced and an agreement was reached with the recently-formed (1979) Conference, the national premier non-league, for an automatic exchange of one club a year, though this was not always honoured. In 1991 the FL took the 'bold' step to expand to 94 clubs (ooh!), but the following year saw the collapse of both Maidstone United and Aldershot, and the move was quietly dropped. The following year, with help from an FA abdicating all responsibility for the wellbeing of the game, the Premier League was created, with the top 20 clubs taking full control (and 99% of the money) for themselves, and the remaining 72 forming the 'new' Divisions 1, 2 and 3. In 2001 several Division 1 clubs threatened their own breakaway as 'the Phoenix League'; naturally the Football League panicked and promised further 'reforms' (i.e. more money for the big clubs, less for the small). Then, just as they were considering some type of league reform, their lucrative tv deal with ITV Digital collapsed (2002), threatening the futures of many clubs. The much-needed reform was dropped like the proverbial hot potato, although two-club exchange with the Conference was belatedly sanctioned. In 2004 the Football League decided to call its top division 'the Football League Championship' (which presumably they thought sounded better than the 'Premiership wannabes league'), thus 'elevating' the old Division 2 and 3 to 'new' Leagues 1 and 2. Sad.

A total of 133 clubs have been members of the Football League in its history (current membership 72, not including the 20 self-serving money-grubbing (aka Premiership) clubs. There are currently 70 English and 2 Welsh members, an all-English Premiership of 20 clubs which has 39 English and 2 Welsh ex-members. Welsh clubs have their names marked in green in the tables, and fans' clubs are in yellow. Clubs in capitals have enjoyed continuous League membership since joining. The tables also list each club's successes in the FA Cup, League Cup and as Level 1 Champions. Also included are the 7 clubs which won the FA Cup but never entered the League, and the 79 (yes, seventy-nine!) clubs unsuccessful in their membership applications.

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

June 2008

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

PREMIERSHIP (Level 1): 4 Pts * CHAMPIONSHIP (Level 2): 3 pts

LEAGUE 1 (Level 3): 2 pts * LEAGUE 2 (Level 4): 1 pt

Level 1 Titles: 4 pts * FA Cup: 4 pts * League Cup: 2 pts

---------------------------------------------

Conference National (Level 5) * Conference North/South (Level 6)

Regional Leagues 1 (Level 7) * Regional Leagues 2 (Level 8)

Local Leagues (Level 9 and below)

Non-Pyramid Leagues

Defunct

--------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------

TEAMS 1-20

TEAMS 21-44

TEAMS 45-68

TEAMS 69-92